I left Mount Pleasant this morning shortly before Dorothy was about to give a spinning demonstration to the kilt-making class. I arrived at Bede’s World at Jarrow and when I walked through the door the first thing I saw was a spinning group in full flow. Wonderful!

Up and walked Mix before watching the final part of the England versus India fifty overs game to see which team would play Australia in the final on Sunday. England won – they stumbled badly at the start, recovered magnificently in the middle and then did their best to throw the game away at the end. They did finally overcome, as a result, we shall go to church on Sunday morning while both Andy Murray and the England cricket team make their plays for famous victories.

Showered, got ready and set off with David (my kindly chauffeur for the day) to meet with the folk from Bede’s World and from St. Paul’s Church. It was a lovely meeting, part of my work for the Green Pilgrimage network. It was a particular thrill to meet Gillian, the new priest in charge at St. Paul’s who had only been in post since Sunday.

After the meeting David and I drove first to Newcastle to see if we could do anything about getting the Yamaha organ repaired (it seems that it is going to be harder than we thought) and then to IKEA where David bought two armchairs. We drove home as quickly as we could as David had a meeting to attend in Berwick.

I settled in to have some supper and then to watch an excellent programme on television tracing the story of the symphony. Afterwards Mix and I retired to the Bothy to catch up on emails.

Rachel’s kilt-making course had gone well – even without Ann who was snowbound in Gourock. David arrived late on in the evening to collect Beth, his dog, who had been being looked after by Rowan. It really is all-go .. but we wouldn’t have it any other way.